Tag: history

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Who’s “Heiffer”?

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In the glorious summer of 1914, Emily Grey, a young Cambridge undergraduate is studying German in Heidelberg, where she meets Hans, a philosopher with grey eyes and long lashes, who wins her heart and asks her to marry him.  Grey, like all women at the time, has not been allowed to graduate -which may be why she has sympathies for the growing demand for women to have a vote. When the First World War intervenes, she is forced to return to England, leaving Hans behind to join the Imperial Navy. A year later, Emily is recruited to serve in fledgling Secret … Continue reading Who’s “Heiffer”?

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The giant Trauma

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The German Peasants’ War was the greatest popular uprising in Western Europe before the 1789 French Revolution. In 1524 and 1525, it swept across Germany with astonishing speed as thousands of people massed in armed bands to demand a new and more egalitarian order. The peasants took control of vast areas of southern and middle Germany, torching and plundering the monasteries, convents, and castles that stood in their way. But they would prove no match for the forces of the lords, who put down the revolt by slaying somewhere between seventy and a hundred thousand peasants in just over two … Continue reading The giant Trauma

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DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives

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In a World of White people, The Science of Racism uses clear scientific research to expose what we know about racism, exactly how we know it, and what we can do about it. Since 2000s, recruiters have suffered from unusual occupational hazard. Having received numerous applications for jobs they have advertised, they have consistently been hiring people who do not exist. Ghost applications with identical CVs, the only difference between the two is that one applicant is Black while the other is white. They fall victims of their own prejudices, as well as to what is by now, a well … Continue reading DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives

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Episodic and digressive bitter history

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BBC journalist and film maker, Nick Thorpe makes an evocative voyage through the Carpathian mountain range of Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine, in a “dark ring” or “magnificent horseshoe” some 1500km long, with its threatened landscape, people, history and talks woodland management in the ancient forests of northern Romania, with an expert nicknamed Ion Barbu; “Beardy John” A landscape of great spruce and beech forests, grass meadows, and ancient villages, it’s people contend daily with the elements- as well as Europe’s last large carnivores. But this fragile ecosystem is now under threat, from climate change and illegal logging. The Silvi-culturist … Continue reading Episodic and digressive bitter history

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Diagnosis of Xi Jinping, Putin and Trump – warns of a second Weimar-like era 

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In Waste Land, geopolitics veteran commentator, Robert Kaplan’s wide-angled vision of our chaotic, globalised world, where present crises resonate with past tyrannies, and assess the outlook for the 21st century, and reveals the society is  a hair’s breath away from the abyss. Donald Trump is taking office amid mini Trumps elsewhere, as steely autocrats steer Russia and China. We are entering a new era of global cataclysm, a deadly mix of war, climate change, great power rivalry, rapid technological advancement, and the end of empire. Kaplan explains incisively how we got here and where we are going. His trademark sweep of history, … Continue reading Diagnosis of Xi Jinping, Putin and Trump – warns of a second Weimar-like era 

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ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITS MICHELANGELO, DA VINCI and RAPHAEL

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ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITS MICHELANGELO, DA VINCI AND RAPHAEL ALONG WITH OTHER GREATS OF THAT ERA. (1500’s) UP TO FEBRUARY 16 2025 Now you can venture to see a collection of originals which includes a large collection of pen and ink drawings covering figures looking lithe and toned, as well as horses imaginatively finely sketched to the hilt. Also included in the relatively small (for the Royal Academy) exhibition  are awe inspiring oils framed in breathtaking magnificent  frames of the Virgin and Child, the Virgin with Saint Anne and child and Saint John the Baptist – spend some time taking in how wonderfully … Continue reading ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITS MICHELANGELO, DA VINCI and RAPHAEL

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“An empire within an empire”, Grandest society of merchants

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In 1800s British East India Company conquers India, and by the beginning of the 19th century, as one of its directors admitted “an empire within an empire”, with the power to make war or peace anywhere in the east having ruled India for 200 years. The East India Company created a sophisticated administration and civil service in India, and built much of London’s Docklands. Its annual spending in Britain £8.5m exceeded about a quarter of total British government annual expenditure. They successfully transferred India’s then prospering GDP to Britain. It is no wonder the Company now referred to itself as “the … Continue reading “An empire within an empire”, Grandest society of merchants

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Fear whipped up by ambitious politicians peddlers of fantastical lies

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In 1678, a handful of perjurers claimed that the Catholics of England planned to assassinate the King Charles II. Men like the “ Reverend Doctor” Titus Oates and “Captain” William Bedloe parlayed their fantastical tales of Irish ruffians, medical poisoners, and silver bullets into public adulation and government pensions. Their political allies used the fabricated plot as a tool to undermine the ministry of Thomas Lord Danby and replace him themselves. The result was the trial and execution of over a dozen innocent Catholics and the imprisonment of many more, some of whom died in custody. Victor Stater reveals the … Continue reading Fear whipped up by ambitious politicians peddlers of fantastical lies

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Demystifying tribal instincts

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Tribal unlocks the deepest secrets of our psychology to give us the tools to manage our misunderstood superpower. Renowned Columbia professor and acclaimed cultural psychologist Michel Morris argues our tribal instincts are humanity’s secret weapon. Our is the only species that lives in tribes: groups glued together by their distinctive cultures that can grow to a scale far beyond clans and bands. According to Morris our psychology is wired by evolution in three distinctive ways. First, the peer instinct to confirm to what most people do, second, the hero instinct to give the group and emulate the most respected, and … Continue reading Demystifying tribal instincts

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Elizabeth Nunez who explored the legacy of colonialism dies aged 80

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Elizabeth Nunez (80), a Trinidad-born writer whose novels explored the legacy of colonialism and the immigrant’s longing for home – while making fun a American academia and New York City’s publishing world – died of a stroke on Friday at her home in Brooklyn. Elizabeth Ann Nunez was born on Feb 18 1944, in Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago, one of 11 chidren of Una Magdalena (Arneaud) Nunez and Waldo Everette Nunez. Her father was a Junior officer in the ministry of labor: who late become the commissioner of labor, and then an executive at … Continue reading Elizabeth Nunez who explored the legacy of colonialism dies aged 80